Infinite Time Loops - Nintendo Loops
by OathToOblivion
Summary: Nintendo has a long history of making awesome-to-play games. Likewise, the Loops have seen the Loops of those games from almost the very beginning. Join us as we recount the Loops of Nintendo from the very beginning (Are you tired of me saying 'very beginning' yet?). Dedicated to Satoru Iwata.
1. Chapter 1

_**This compilation of the Innortal-style Infinite Loops is dedicated to Satoru Iwata. Rest in peace, Iwata-san, and please understand if we shed tears.**_

 _ **"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer."**_

 _ **Satoru Iwata  
6 December 1959 - 11 July 2015**_

* * *

1.0

"This meeting will hereby come to order!" Zeus pontificated to the crowd of Greek Gods and Goddesses. Most of them were bored out of their skulls. It had taken Zeus an entire hour just to get to this point.

"Now, since Morpheus has managed to activate the DC Loop, we now have the capacity to activate more Loops and begin restabilizing our great home of Olympus!" he blustered.

"Didn't those Norse guys win the last election? I thought we were calling the place Yggdrasil for now?" Ares said in a bored tone, too distracted by sitting next to Aphrodite. Zeus glared at him for a second, before proceeding to ignore him.

"As such, we must begin by handing out assignments!" With that, an evil grin grew on his face. "Hephaestus, you get this lovely Loop known as the Megaverse. It has some problems, but I know you can fix it." Everybody there (except Aphrodite and Ares) read between the lines. This assignment was going to be _painful_.

"Knew I'd get in trouble," Hephaestus sighed.

And that was basically how the meeting went. Zeus foisted off Loops onto the members of the Greek Pantheon. But as he got to the next one in line, he surprisingly softened.

"Hecate, I'm giving you the so-called 'Nintendo Cluster'. This is a rather large set of Loops. Do you think you can handle it?" he asked.

"Of course! Leave it to me!" Hecate grinned. So many Loops meant an opportunity for her! Sure, the sheer number would be daunting, but all the more reason to pull this off! She'd show everyone just what a great job she'd do!

* * *

Later, Hecate was not in so good a mood. "So _why_ I can't just Administrate _all_ of them?" she asked the goddess and bunny in front of her.

Yuetu, Rabbit of the Moon and unimpressed by her glare, repeated himself for the umpteenth time. _"Because there's seriously way too many Loops in the cluster for one person to deal with. Some of those are really big branches, too. That's why,"_ he said in a bored tone.

Epona, Celtic Goddess of horses, rolled her eyes at his bluntness, but forged onwards. "Also, do you want to be as overworked as Odin and Hephaestus?" she pointed out.

Hecate grimaced at this reminder of the workload the Admins were being forced to deal with. Not only did Hephaestus have the severely buggy Megaverse to deal with, he also had a handful of normal Loops to look over. And Odin had taken on the task of managing the mind-bogglingly huge Final Fantasy branch, as well as the moderately large Digimon branch.

"Fine..." she muttered.

Yuetu sighed. _"Look, I get why you want to do all of them. But still, you take all of them, you'll crash and burn. Then where would they be?"_ he pointed out.

"Alright, I get your point," Hecate sighed in defeat.

 _"Fine. Now, if you don't mind, I have a couple of Loops to look after,"_ Yuetu said, the Pokémon and Sailor Moon admin hopping away.

"And I should go before that supervisor of mine does something dumb again. Good luck," Epona said kindly, before rushing off to prevent Susanoo from doing anything to the Zelda Loops.

Hecate glowered for a bit, before brightening up. Two Loops out of the many she still had wasn't that bad. They weren't going to take any more, right? Yeah! Time to get to work. And she'd start with that Italian man in the land of mushrooms!

* * *

1.1 (Zerorock41 & calvinball)

"What in the..."

Mario was confused at the sudden change in scenery. He had long since realized that time had been repeating, but he had never recalled being in what looked like a London train station before.

Suddenly, a small mousy-looking girl, who was followed by a red-head, walked up to him and kissed him. Mario was not that averse to quick kisses by girls, but he couldn't remember the last time he had a full-on, tongue included, make-out session.

"Ha, pay up Ron," said the girl to the redhead, who begrudgingly pulled a strange looking device from nowhere. The girl gladly took it and it disappeared in seconds.

Just as the two began walking away, Mario called out for them. The red-head spoke.

"Sorry. We're eternal time-repeaters who had to settle a bet."

Mario's eyes widened. "Wait, you two are repeating time too?"

The two children stopped walking and turned around. The girl asked, "Wait, what do you mean 'too'... Wait a minute. You're Mario!"

"That's-a me. Now, could one of you two explain-a to me what in-a the heck is going on?"

* * *

It was a long explanation that took the majority of the train ride they spent in a compartment, but by the end of it Ron and Hermione (they had, by now, gotten introductions out of the way) had explained the situation fairly thoroughly. It was all rather complicated (a tree that was also a computer that was also the multiverse that was also broken?), but Mario had dealt with some rather strange things in the past, so he decided to trust the two kids for now. Goodness knew that it was better than any other explanations he didn't have.

"So you say that-a something has-a broken the universe itself-a?" Mario asked, just to clarify.

"Multiverse, but yes," Ron said with a shrug. "I was starting to think we'd never get the chance to tell someone else ourselves."

"You mean there are-a more of you?!" Mario asked, a little alarmed. While he had certainly understood the part about the multiverse, it was still a bit much to take in. And to think that in some universes he was _fictional_... Well, he'd been a painting once, actually. A video game wouldn't be so bad, really.

"Yeah. At least a handful," Hermione explained. "Who was there again? Ranma..." She seemed to think for a moment, then shrugged. "You'll meet them all eventually. Harry knows them much better. He's been through more Fused Loops than we have. You can ask him later. Right now, I think he's probably busy settling some of our other bets. Would explain why we haven't seen him."

"Fused Loops... that's what is-a going on-a right now?" Mario asked.

"Sort of," Hermione said. "Some would say you're a Visiting Looper instead. It's not terribly important, but it does help make everything more clear.

"Alright then," Mario said, nodding. "Well, I know what I-a have to do-a!" He stood up and pulled his cap down more firmly on his head (despite the wizard robes and being eleven years old, he still had it) and clenched a fist. "Point me in-a the direction of what's-a done this, and Mario will-a put a stop to it and-a fix everything!"

"Wait, _what?!_ " Hermione and Ron almost said the words in unison. Ron continued. "Mario Jumpman Mario, you are in no position to try and 'fix everything.' Did all that talk of the multiverse not make it obvious that this is all a _lot_ bigger than any of us?"

"No one even knows _why_ Yggdrasil broke!" Hermione added. "There's no one who _could_ point you in the right direction!"

"Besides, even if you _did_ find whatever thing that might've caused this, what would you do?" Ron asked. "Actually, what _could_ you do?"

"I could-a stomp on it-a," Mario suggested. "That has always-a worked in the past for-a me."

" _Stomp_ on it?" Hermione asked, visibly incredulous.

"My hammer could also use the exercise," Mario added.

"A _hammer?_ " Ron parroted.

"Or, if I get lucky enough to find a few Starmen -"

"Mario, _stop_." Despite being physically no more than eleven, Mario could see an older wisdom in Hermione's eyes as she cut him off, her tone of voice final and unyielding. "No one knows what damaged Yggdrasil, and whatever it was it exists on a higher plane of existence than we do. A stomp, hammer, or even a Starmen will _be nothing_ in comparison. That's if you can even _get_ there." Hermione shook her head, and suddenly Mario felt like a foolish child. "If it exists on a higher plane of reality, how do you expect to reach it? How are you ever going to be able to do _anything_ about it?"

"I..." Mario was at a loss for words. Not all that rare, really, he preferred not to speak if he didn't have to, but still. "...I don't-a know."

The train compartment grew quite still save for the rumble of the train. Hermione dropped her stern expression, and her and Ron's visages seemed to reflect what Mario felt.

Powerlessness.

"We don't either, Mario," Ron said, quiet.

Rather than face his fellow "Loopers," Mario turned his gaze towards the compartment's window. Outside, the English countryside seemed to fly by. He'd never been to England before. Brooklyn, sure, but never across the sea. With a grimace, Mario realized that he couldn't actually remember if Brooklyn was truly part of his past, or if perhaps it was a part of an experience like the one he was having right now: awakening in another universe. Already he was losing his mind and his grip on the past, and if what Ron and Hermione said was true, this experience was nowhere near its conclusion.

"GWAHAHAHAHAH!" Before Mario could quite settle into sulking, though, the side of the train burst open, and Mario leapt back to try and keep away from the gaping hole in the locomotive.

"This doesn't normally happen!" Ron declared, and Mario had a feeling that what he was saying was fairly self-evident for him and Hermione. For him, though, it was all too familiar.

"Ah, Mario! How good to see you!" Clasping onto the train's outside through sheer brute force and peering into the now open compartment was Bowser, Mario's old nemesis. "I was worried I wouldn't get to show you my glorious return from death. You seem unsurprised."

"Death...?" Mario was unable to hold back the question. Bowser had never died to his memory. Or had he? His memories were a tricky thing, these days.

"Yes, death, Mario! I have conquered it!" Fortunately for appearance's sake, Bowser seemed to misinterpret Mario's confusion. "It's a state secret, though, and I'll take it to my... GWAHAHA, _grave_ , GRAHAHAH!"

 _"Mario!"_ Another voice that Mario felt was all too familiar cut through the air, and Mario felt himself tense up and panic.

"Peach!" Mario cried out and searched for her - there! Clutched in Bowser's free hand was a young Peach, wearing a wizard's robe and a pink witch's hat. Was she a student at this Hogwarts, too?

"I'm going to need your little friend here, Mario," Bowser said with a conniving grin. "Has to do with my own medical condition, really. 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away,' but if I'm right, Peaches stop the Reaper! So long, Mario! GWAHAHAHAHAHAH!" And with those final words, Bowser leapt into the sky. Mario followed his path with his eyes, only to see the Koopa King reach a Clown Car hovering in the air and fly away.

Ron and Hermione, in the meantime, had fallen silent. Hermione's expression looked incredulous, but Ron seemed to only barely be keeping laughter at bay.

"Mario," Ron squeaked out, grinning from ear to ear. "Check your Loop Memories."

"My Loop Memor - oh, those-a!" Mario recalled what Ron and Hermione had said while telling him about the Loops. Something about getting cue memories from his Unawake self...

"My name is-a Mario Jumpman Potter?!" Mario cried out, astonished. "Does this-a mean that -"

"Harry would seem to be elsewhere for now," Hermione confirmed. "And that overgrown lizard is the dreaded wizard... _Bowsermort_." Hermione seemed to have difficulty forcing herself to say the name. Mario had to admit, the names sounded rather absurd put together.

"Mario!" Yet _another_ familiar voice reached Mario's ears, and he smiled as he ran to the compartment door and opened it.

"Luigi!" he said as he enveloped his brother in a hug. He was somewhat concerned that Luigi wouldn't be here, since he was replacing the "Harry Potter" Ron and Hermione had mentioned. However, it seemed that in this particular Loop they were, together, the "Boys who Lived." Eventually, they broke the hug, and Mario could see that the now-young Luigi was terrified.

"Mario, thank-a goodness!" Luigi said. "I didn't-a know where you'd-a gone, and then-a Bowsermort -" Ron snickered. Mario ignored him. "- somehow broke into the train and-a kidnapped Peach Toadstool!"

"We have to do-a something, bro!" Mario said without hesitation, feeling himself prepare to fight his old nemesis, even in a new world.

"Mario," Ron said, interrupting his train of thought. "You don't have to go after him. I mean, you're a kid right now, what can you do?"

"But I-a have to go and-a stop him!" Mario said, insistent. "If I-a don't-a, who will?"

"No one really _needs_ to, Mario," Hermione said with a shrug. "She'll be fine by the end of the Loop, won't she?"

Mario stopped for a moment. They... had a sort of point there. It was impossible for her to come to harm, because at some point everything would reset back to before anything bad had happened. If he fought Bowser, would anything really change...?

"Mario? What are-a they talking about-a?" Luigi asked. "I-a don't understand it-a, but all I-a know is that Peach-a needs our help-a right now!"

Mario didn't hesitate any longer.

"Maybe it won't-a change what happens in the future," Mario said, not to anyone in particular. "But I know what I-a need to do to change things at least right-a now."

With that, he and Luigi _jumped_ into action.

Even as eleven year old kids in England, they still had what it took.

* * *

1.2

Hecate leaned back in her chair, a satisfied smirk on her lips. There. That wasn't so hard, now was it? She could do this, no problem! Just then, the door to her office opened, and a certain Greek Pantheon Head poked his head in through the door.

"Well, you've certainly been busy. I see you've activated your first Loop," he commented.

"Of course! It's not that complicated!" Hecate declared loftily.

"Good, good. Incidentally, did you know that you were the first person to activate a new Loop over the whole of...ugh, Yggdrasil after Morpheus did his thing?" Zeus slyly commented.

Hecate blinked in confusion. "I did?" she said in surprise.

"Yes! That just proves to show that electing that one-handed idiot in charge was a mistake. Well, I'd better leave you to your work. Take care," Zeus said, before leaving. No doubt, to rub it in that it was a Greek God who had started the first of the new era of Loops.

Hecate blinked some more for a few moments, before an arrogant smirk crossed her face. Ha! This was too easy! Still, better get on task. There was still a lot more to do. With nary a thought, she split into three aspects, and all three of them started looking through for the next Loop in the Cluster to activate. That gorilla seemed to be the best option, as no matter what the variant, the Italian's Loop crossed with it...

* * *

1.3 (crossoverpairinglover with edits by myself)

 **98**

Jumping into the air, Mario felt the satisfying bounce only landing on a Goomba could give you, causing a coin to fly out and into his hand.

 **99**

Running at maximum speed, Mario jumped the gap. Avoiding the bottomless chasm below, he flew through the air and managed to grab the airborne coin.

 **100**

With the hundredth coin in hand, Mario skipped to a stop, as time itself froze. The Goomba that was just about to race at him lay fixed, as all around him obtained a darker tinge.

A shadowy figure then descended from above, a dark being cloaked in a black hood. A scythe lay in one hand, and a money bag in the other.

Death himself landed before Mario and held his bag out. Mario proceed to hand over all 100 of his coins.

"That bought you your 5th redo," Death informed him. "Pleasure doing business with you. Please collect 100 more coins for further life."

Death proceeded to float back into the air and out of sight, as the darkness lifted and time resumed. The Goomba charged at him, but he idly jumped over it and landed right back on it.

 _'I don't think I'll ever get used to how 1-UPs work in this, uh, Variant,'_ Mario thought to himself, scratching the back of his head.

* * *

1.4

Luigi grinned in triumph. He'd finally conquered his fear of ghosts by defeating King Boo and rescuing Mario for the second time. Now he even had a little ghost puppy to look after, and Mario had called him number one. Everything was looking Luigi-

Then everything _shifted_ , and Luigi found himself standing in the middle of a grassy field, surrounded by Koopas.

"Huh?" He had only a few seconds to react, before that horde of Koopas fell on him.

Luigi fought as hard as he could. But he was disorientated, and felt weak. He got smacked all over the place, culminating in a Koopa shell to the head that knocked him clean across the field.

Dazed, Luigi could only wonder what was going on.

"Wa-hoo!" A familiar voice rang out, and a blur of red jumped over Luigi, batting away the Koopa horde. Rubbing his head, Luigi got off the ground just in time to see Mario punt the last Koopa into the sky with his hammer.

"Mario?" he asked.

Mario turned around, and gave him a grin. "Luigi!"

Luigi knew his brother well. Something was different about Mario than he remembered. But he could tell; it _was_ Mario. The two brothers looked at each other for a while. No words needed to be said between them. No matter what had just happened, Luigi would always follow his brother to the ends of the earth.

"Let's-a go!" Mario declared.

"Okey-dokey!" Luigi nodded.

* * *

1.5 (Lord Circe)

Wario chuckled as he hoisted his sack. It wasn't often that he broke _into_ a place with a sack full of stuff, but the things he was carrying weren't anything he considered treasure. However, if that weird book he found in Mario's house was correct, they might just be a ticket to getting some real treasure, though.

He snuck quietly through the dark castle, dodging patrolling guards, and jumping a few pit traps, until he came to the royal bedroom. He carefully snuck into the room and crept over to the bed.

"WAWAWAWAWAWA!"

"ARGH!" With a loud shout, Bowser jumped out of his bed, eyes wild, at the unexpected laughter. He only had a moment to recognize Mario's crazy cousin, before Wario pulled open the large sack he was carrying and dumped a mountain of green vegetables all over Bowser, burying him up to his neck.

"WAWAWA! I brought you cucumbers, now you-a give me a fortune!"

Bowser stared blankly, at a moment, before growling, smoke pouring out of his mouth and nostrils. "I'M A KOOPA, NOT A KAPPA! I DON'T EVEN LIKE CUCUMBERS!"

* * *

Mario chuckled as he watched a burst of flame shoot out of Bowser's window, chasing after the fleeing form of Wario. "Who-a knew? Pranking is fun, especially when you can-a get two at once."

* * *

1.6 (ThanosCradik)

Princess Peach Toadstool immediately noticed something was off when she saw that she was much younger than yesterday. Looking at a calendar revealed that she was in the past, so she could write off some sort of 'fountain of youth' shenanigans. There was something about today's date that she was trying to remember as she had some tea in the castle garden when the castle shuddered.

"That's right! Today is the day that Bowser first kidnapped me!" As an adult anyway.

She turned and noticed a few Koopa Troopas already surrounding her, having snuck up on her as she was talking to herself.

"Oh."

One Troopa came up and said, "Come with us, Princess, and we won't resort to the hard way."

After thinking for a moment, Peach threw her teacup at the Troopa's face, immediately taking off toward the castle's main halls as he recoiled. The shocked Koopas stood there for a bit until the lead Troopa yelled out, "Get her!"

As she ran down the halls, Peach realized that her younger self wasn't quite as fit as her future self was, so she would need to finish this quick. Turning around, she decided to make a stand right there.

As the first Koopa made a dive for her, she jumped out of the way and fell down on its shell, causing the turtle to shoot out backwards knocking into some of the other Koopas. She then kicked the shell down the narrow hall, beating all the Koopas in a row. Nodding to herself, she continued her way down the hall until she made it to the main hall, where more Koopas were waiting.

Before anyone could say or do anything, one of the windows broke as a familiar red & blue plumber crashed through it. Mario landed on one of the Koopas, and continued to jump on all of their heads as Peach smiled to herself.

"Leave it to Mario to come and save the day."

* * *

After the Koopas retreated, Peach turned to Mario and asked, "How did you make it through the window?"

"Erm… I-a wanted to try-a something new this-a time, so we-a used a catapult." Mario hadn't realized his slip, but Peach did.

"'This time'? Did you go back into the past as well?"

Shocked, Mario asked her, "Are you-a Looping as well?"

"I… suppose so. Could you explain that to me?"

And so, Mario told her about Yggdrasil and how the multiverse was broken and was restarting time periodically. As she listened, she came to the conclusion that it would be alright with Mario at her side.

* * *

1.7

Donkey Kong was enraged. He and Diddy had gotten those stupid Tikis off of DK Island, and he had decided to take a well-deserved rest. And of course, while he was asleep, K. Rool had decided to attack and steal his Banana Hoard _again!_

The only puzzling thing was that he had somehow also managed to catch Diddy again. Diddy had gotten plenty of experience with the Kremlings over the years, so there was no way he could have been kidnapped again. The only reason the Tikis had was because they hypnotized him. Strange...

It was at that point that DK found the Barrel that Diddy had been stuffed into. Funnily enough, it looked like it was the place he had first found it, back when K. Rool had first attacked the Island. DK then busted it open, causing Diddy to tumble out of it.

"You all right, little buddy?" he asked his close friend (But why did some of his memories say that Diddy was his nephew though?).

"I'm fine, Donkey Kong! But those nasty Kremlings stole the Banana Hoard!" Diddy reported.

"I know, little buddy, and we're going to put a stop to them! Whip out your jetpack, and let's go!" DK declared.

"Yeah! ...Say, Donkey Kong, what's a jetpack?" Diddy questioned.

"...Huh?" Donkey Kong was confused. Why didn't Diddy know what a jetpack is? DK may have been a simple ape, but even he could tell that something weird was going on.

* * *

DK's suspicions were confirmed as they traversed DK Island in an attempt to get back the Banana Hoard, and culminated when he saw the Gangplank Galleon, no longer the wreck that it used to be. Somehow, he'd gone back in time to K. Rool's first attack on the Island.

The only question is, why was he the only one who remembered? The only person who'd attempt to turn back time was K. Rool, but he didn't know anything about it when DK clobbered him all over again.

Suddenly, DK heard a familiar sound. He turned, spotting a Warp Pipe rising from the ground, and a familiar figure leaping out.

What was Mario doing here? DK didn't actually meet him until the first Mario Kart tournament (Although why did some of his memories say that he had tried to save Cranky from Mario back when Cranky was Donkey Kong?), so...

"Hey-a, DK. How've you-a been?" Mario greeted.

"Uh...fine. Hey, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on, would you, Mario?" Donkey Kong questioned.

"What about?" Mario asked, confused, before a thought struck him. "Oh! I-a know! Did you-a go back in-a time, DK?"

The King of Swing's eyes widened. How did Mario know about that? Mario chuckled, before saying, "This'll take some-a time. I'm-a still not sure about what's-a going on. But this is-a what Mario knows..."

* * *

1.8 (crossoverpairinglover with edits by myself)

A red flower lay before the great and legendary ape as Cranky eyed it uneasily.

"A Fire Flower? Those don't normally grow here, do they? Well, back in my day they didn't. Now, I suppose even you can figure out how to use the thing if that darn plumber can..."

Donkey Kong, the legendary ape of Nintendo, looked at it questioningly. He'd never used one of these before. _'How does Mario normally use them anyway?'_ he thought to himself. ...Well, it was a flower. Maybe…

He ate the flower, then steam started emitting from his ears. Yowling in pain, he began running around, fire bursting from his mouth as if he had eaten some really spicy curry.

Cranky shook his head in exasperation. Why on earth did his idiot grandson just _eat_ a Fire Flower?

* * *

1.9 (Awesomedude17)

This was the last straw.

This loop, King K. Rool had not just stolen his banana hoard, but had made it into a variety of banana based food from banana bread to banana pudding to banana cream pie to plantains.

Regardless, Donkey Kong punched through the door leading to Rool's throne room.

"Ah, Donkey Kong! Are you here for the-"

Donkey Kong punched King K. Rool so hard, the crocodile flew into space.

Then he turned to see that his own banana hoard was intact, with Donkey Kong's family standing near it with shocked faces.

And the banner proudly proclaiming 'Happy birthday, DK!' clearly made it all too clear what happened.

"Oops."

* * *

1.10 (ThanosCradik)

Blinking as everything came into focus again, Diddy was once again back in the past. The first time it had happened he tripped and ended up landing on his head, and then a Kremling got him and… he shuddered as he remembered.

This time he seemed to be stuck in a barrel again, and he had no intentions of staying in it.

By the time he noticed that he was missing his gear, the barrel suddenly lurched and crashed over a rock. He instantly knew what had caused it when he heard a very familiar voice say, "Oops."

"Ouch. Can we not do that again?"

"Heh, yeah. Sorry about that, little buddy." Picking the monkey up off the ground, Donkey Kong continued, "You ready to kick these Kremlings off the island?"

"You bet, but… have you seen my things? I don't have them anymo-" Whatever else he was going to say was lost as D.K. swept him up in a one-armed hug, spinning him around.

"Whoo Hoo! You're Looping now!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, what are you talking about!? And put me down before you let go again!"

After he was let back down, Diddy was told about the Loops. That had blown his mind a bit. Trying to imagine time repeating for such a long time already, and then continuing to do so for even longer was almost too much. But, his big buddy would have to go through that even longer than he would. So, mustering his bluster, he turned to D.K. and said, "What are we waiting for?! We've got some Kremling tail to kick off our island!" He wasn't going to let him be lonely so long as he could help it.

Donkey Kong chuckled, seeing what Diddy was trying to do. Reaching into his Subspace Pocket, he pulled out somethings. "I think you'll be needing these, then."

When he saw his Popguns and Rocketbarrel, Diddy let out a cheer. "Whoa! How did you do that?!"

"I'll teach you how to do that yourself, but I'll hang on to these until then. You ready, little buddy?"

Twirling his popguns, Diddy replied, "Ready, big buddy!"

And not a single Kremling tail remained unkicked.

* * *

1.11 (Lord Circe)

"Hey-a Mario! You have a letter from Princess Peach!"

Mario groaned softly to himself. "Again? I just rescued her yesterday from the whole crazy deal with Bowser Jr. posing as me." Louder, he called back to Luigi. "What does it say?"

"Um, let me check. Uh-huh. Looks like she is inviting you to a party."

Mario rubbed his face. "Just a party. No Festival of Stars or Celebration of Mothra's Defeat?"

"Who?" His Unawake brother called back.

"Nevermind. Well, I guess we better get ready and go to that party."

* * *

Mario smiled at one of the Toads as he accepted a glass of something bubbly that was being handed out. He sniffed experimentally, but couldn't smell anything obviously magical or transformative. Taking a sip, he took a moment to enjoy the fruity flavor, then took his time to glance around.

Peach was up on the dais, talking to a few dignitaries from some neighboring kingdoms (none of whom had captured Peach before, to his memory). Several Toads and other Mushroom kingdom guests were milling about, with a three-dimensional Madam Flurrie floating off to the side, singing some low jazzy tune, accompanied by the band.

Discretely, Mario slid up to each of the windows and scanned the sky for signs of Bowser's airship. Nothing to the east or west. He would have to take the time to slip out and head up to one of the towers to do a full panoramic search. He had slid down to the dungeon earlier, but other than a couple of Goomba playing poker, he hadn't found anything particularly alarming, not even a few Boo looking for a few cheap scares.

All in all, it seemed like a perfectly nice party. Which was making Mario just a bit paranoid about where the inevitable attack was going to come from. Maybe a temporal attack? He'd need to see about scanning for any disruptions in the palace later. Maybe he should check out the dignitaries rooms, see if there was anything incriminating laying around...

* * *

"AHHHH. That's the stuff." Bowser slid down, sinking into the boiling hot water of the Lava Lotus Hot Spring Resorts signature hot springs. Flexing his claws, Bowser stretched out, before crossing them behind his head. "Yeah, relaxation time."

"Honestly! Lazing about here, when you have the perfect opening to grab Princess Peach. She's hosting her little gala, and you're here, doing nothing at all!" Bowser winced as Kamek's grating voice cut across his calm. He cracked his eyes open to glare up at floating wizard, hovering over the water on his broomstick.

"I've been trying to get reservations here for months. This is the only place around that keeps the water hot enough for me to actually feel, plus their Shell Scrubber Massage really gets rid of the knots I build up fighting that pesky plumber. Though, now that I think about it, I don't know if he even is a plumber. I mean, he's got the outfit, but..."

"THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT!" Kamek screeched. "You wouldn't have knots if you were actually competent and won for once!"

Bowser glared at Kamek for a moment, debating the merits of trying ignite the broomstick with a good fireball, before smirking and leaning back, letting his eyes slide shut. "Yeah, yeah. Hey, ya know this place just got the E. Gadd Massage-O-Matic installed? Supposed to make anyone feel divine..."

Bowser trailed off at the fwooping sound of Kamek's teleport, followed by a few distant explosions as Kamek made a "reservation" to use the device. Bowser chuckled lightly to himself and slid deeper into the water. It was good to relax once in a while.

* * *

One person in a Loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts time looping.

There is always at least one Anchor present in a given Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one, and they may not always be a part of the snippet itself.

The standard pattern for a loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is Looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influenced by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until either a predetermined end point is reached or all the Loopers have copped it.

To be Awake is to be aware of the time loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time.)

The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after others have started looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular loop.

Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality.

Loops do not have to be in chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they not require a mutually contradictory order (where A must be before B and B must be before A.)

Just about every Looper is very, very stir crazy.

The Loops covered in this story are the ones for every single Nintendo Franchise, except for Pokémon (which I also run), and Zelda (which is run by Lord Circe).

* * *

1.0 - Let's be honest, the sheer amount of stuff Nintendo has made over the years is kind of daunting.

1.1 - Mario gets the Multiverse Speech from Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

I like to think that his comments were a bit of a kick in the pants for (most of) the Loopers of the Original Seven Loops, and got them out of their Innortal-era mindset and closer back to their canon personalities.

1.2 - When the Loops first started, there were only seven: Ranma One-Half, Naruto, Harry Potter, Evangelion, Sailor Moon, Slayers, and Bleach. Don't think too hard about why most of them are Anime (It's Innortal's fault). Later, Morpheus and Thor were able to activate the DC and Marvel Comics Loops, letting the rest of the multiverse Loop. Mario led the charge as the tenth Loop to go active.

1.3 - Apparently crossoverpairinglover's head-canon on how extra lives work. Just how did Mario make a deal with Death in the first place?

1.4 - Luigi's First Loop. Sibling bonds can't be tarnished by such small things like Time Loops.

1.5 - Oh dear. If _Mario_ is pranking people, we're all doomed.

1.6 - Peach's First Loop. People seem to forget that Peach is perfectly capable of kicking butts.

1.7 - He's the leader of the bunch, you know him well! He's finally back to kick some tail! Donkey Kong's Loop goes active.

How did Mario appear during the first one? You're looking at one of the first examples of a Tandem Run, where two Loops intersect in baseline. DK's confused memories are because until recently, we weren't sure if he was Donkey Kong Jr. or Donkey Kong III (Thanks a lot, Rare...).

1.8 - OCP: Outside Context Power-Up.

1.9 - Brawl in the Family comic strips are basically typical Looping shenanigans.

1.10 - He can fly real high with his jetpack on! But Kremlings beware 'cause he's after you! Diddy's First, well, _Second_ Loop.

1.11 - Even villains have to relax. But I'm surprised Bowser didn't try to go after Peach anyway. Hm...I wonder what that could mean?


	2. Chapter 2

2.1

Mario was never sure what to think when the Loop started with him rescuing Pauline from Donkey Kong I, later to be known as Cranky. On the one hand, its early start in Brooklyn gave him access to a few things he couldn't usually get in the Mushroom Kingdom. On the other hand, letting Pauline go was always a bit of a painful thing.

As he started climbing the 75 meters up to where he knew Donkey Kong and Pauline were, he thought so hard about what to do, that he missed the growing shadow that enveloped him. He didn't register anything wrong until...

"Surprise, Pasta Face!" a familiar voice roared. And then suddenly, Bowser landed right in front of him, spewing fire from his snout.

"Mamma mia!" Mario let out in surprise, tumbling backwards to avoid getting set on fire.

"Gwha ha ha ha! You're getting sloppy, Mario! Or maybe I'm just getting more awesome! Man, these time loops are great!" Bowser declared, inflating his ego.

"Huh?! Bowser, you're-a Looping?!" Mario said in shock. From what he remembered from what they told him, villains never Looped! ...Then again, he'd never really thought of Bowser as an outright villain, ever. Maybe that was the tipping point?

"Oh, you are too, Mario?" Bowser blinked in surprise. Then he shrugged. "Eh, guess it's only fair. Pummeling you when you have no idea what's going on wouldn't be satisfying!" he grinned, about to toss a couple of hammers at his arch-rival.

Mario waved his hands in front of him. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait! Time-a out!" He made the T-sign.

Bowser stumbled from where he was going to throw his hammers. "What?!" he asked, annoyed.

"Don't you-a want to know why time's-a Looping?" Mario pointed out.

Bowser contemplated that for a second, before grunting and putting his hammer down. "Yeah, sure. Lay it on me."

* * *

"Oh, I see," Bowser realized, contemplating the information Mario had told him. It was certainly a lot to swallow. But there was only one other thing on his mind.

"Hey, Peach is Looping too, right?" he questioned.

"Of-a course!" Mario declared.

"That's all I need to know. Time in!" Bowser declared, tossing his hammers at Mario while he was still unaware.

"Aiyiyi!" Mario declared, barely getting out of the way.

* * *

2.2 (Lord Circe)

DK galloped along the jungle trail, dodging past branches, and occasionally leaping up to stomp on some Kritters' heads. There were quite a few things that he didn't like about this Loop, the loss of his hands being one of the biggest, but some of the perks helped make up for it a bit.

"HEEHAW!" DK let out a braying laugh as he spun, after spotting one of the guns on the Gangplank Galleon swiveling to fire at him through the trees. The cannon fired, and DK kicked. Lucky for him, the power of his fists was transferred to his hooves, and the cannonball made a satisfying crunch as it blasted backwards and made a hole through the side of the Galleon, which rapidly began listing in the water.

Off on a nearby ledge, a windup clockwork ape gave a jerky, exaggerated yawn. "Whoo, back in my day, we didn't mess around with no fancy footwork. It was all fists and barrels."

DK just snorted and trotted off. Whether or not he was an ape, he was still going to save his bananas.

* * *

2.3

Samus Aran still didn't know what to think of the fact that her life seemed to be repeating over and over again. At the very least, she knew it couldn't be a hallucination, because her Power Suit seemed to keep any upgrades that she had collected, although she tended to not apply them and use the in-repeat ones instead.

On the one hand, she hated the fact that she had to deal with Ridley, the Space Pirates, Mother Brain, Phazon, Dark Samus, the X Parasites, and the like all over again every single time. On the other...she had time. Time to figure out how to save the people and things that mattered.

The Baby Metroid, the Chozo, Zebes, K-2L and her parents, ...Ian and Adam. All of them could be saved. So she had decided, she'd figure out just what was going on, find its weak point, and use it to her advantage, just like she always does.

And that meant experimentation.

She already knew that she could combine her different Beams with her Missile Launcher for the Charge Combos. And that she could combine her Missiles and Bombs to recharge her Energy Tanks.

She also knew that she could combine her Ice and Spazer Beams with Power Bombs to make a shield. But what about her other Beams?

...Unfortunately, her experiments tended to be less than fruitful, and a bit explosive. Not to mention the time she had set herself on fire with the Plasma Bomb… Anyway, her other standard beams' effectiveness with a Bomb Combo was not that great. Surprisingly, though, the Light, Dark, and Annihilator Beams synced up fairly decently.

Samus blasted open a door in the latest Space Pirate hideout, drawing the attention of every Pirate in the room. "Show time," she whispered to herself, switching the Dark Beam on. She immediately charged a shot up, then immediately switched into Morph Ball mode and laid down a Power Bomb. Dark energy coursed around the Bomb as it exploded, letting loose a dark energy field. The field let off tendrils of dark energy that rooted the Pirates in place as they were damaged by it, letting Samus finish annihilating them with, well, the Annihilator Beam.

When the fire of her arm cannon ceased and the Pirates were all dead, Samus observed the damage dealt. While the floor had been ripped apart slightly, the walls, which were made of Denzium, weren't.

"Hm. That's strange. Power Bombs usually destroy Denzium," she noted. Seems as though while they were good for combat, the Power Bomb combos weren't exactly good for anything else. Considering that the beams she had obtained on Aether actually had _ammo_...

Looks like it was back to the drawing board.

* * *

2.4

Luigi cowered under his bed. He knew that he'd gotten over his fear of ghosts a long time ago, but this was too much!

"Luigi? Come on, you-a can't stay under there for-a-ever!" Mario pointed out.

"Watch me..." Luigi muttered.

Mario sighed. "At least-a promise me you'll-a come out the-a next time Bowser attacks? I-a can't really do anything like-a this," he admitted.

"...O-Okay, Mario. Luigi promises," Luigi swore to his dead brother.

* * *

2.5 (Awesomedude17)

Donkey Kong had an unamused look as a man in a pink gi tried to hurt him.

"Hah, you felt that one, didn't you?" Dan Hibiki taunted.

DK flared his nostrils, and made a downward punch, embedding the Street Fighter into the ground.

Dan blinked as Donkey Kong walked away.

"What just happened? Why can't I feel my feet? Oh wait, now I can. Ahhhhhhhhhh~..."

* * *

2.6 (Bardic Knowledge)

It was an early Awakening for Lina, sitting on the beach, eating seafood she bought with the money she stole from those terrible bandits (honestly, the broken leg trick?). Now, if everything went as usual, then the three stupid bandits should be bringing Naga along sometime soon. Then they could get to Mipross so she could put time back on the right track (as well as pocket some more gold as a down payment on getting rid of Joyrock).

"Hey, you!"

Oh look, there the idiots were already. She continued eating while they ranted at her, having only paid attention to them once and that was once too often.

"Alright, go get her, mister!"

Lina blinked. _Mister?_

"Wahoo!" shouted a voice, accompanied by a sound she could only describe as "sproing!" She turned around and spotted a man in red and blue, wearing a cap with the letter "M" on the front. He adjusted his hat and said, "It's-a Mario time!" then paused, a look of confusion entering his eyes.

Lina nodded as she realized that he was a new Looper. _He must still be getting the hang of in-Loop memories,_ she thought.

"Hey, you must be the new guy. Hermione mentioned you a while back. Name's Lina, Lina Inverse." As expected, the instant she said her name, the bandits froze and started muttering to each other. As usual after introducing herself, Lina proceeded to ignore them, beckoning Mario over. "Welcome to Red World. Here, have some clams. This place is really good."

"Grazie," said Mario, sitting at the booth beside her. "My name is-a Mario."

A few minutes later, Lina turned to her new companion. "So, Mario, you got the tickets?"

"Tickets? What tickets are you talking about-a?"

"Well, Naga, my usual companion right now, has some tickets for a boat to Mipross Island. We kinda need to go there so I can make sure my future boyfriend exists so I can meet him."

Mario just blinked a bit before rummaging under his overalls. "Oh, yeah!" He cheered as he pulled out a pair of tickets.

"Excellent! Looks like we're going to Mipross." Lina stood up and lead Mario a few feet away from the stall. "Let's go! Rey Wing!"

"Waaaa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" screamed Mario as they flew through the air.

* * *

2.7 (ThanosCradik)

Pit knew something was wrong the instant he hit the ground. One second he was soaring, having just vanquished the god of the Underworld, and the next he was flat on his face.

Picking himself up, he saw that he was back in the Underworld, near the cell he was locked in… before…

"Oh man, this better not mean what I think it means."

He checked himself, finding that he was much younger than before. And all he had was his clothes and his bow.

"Aw crud, I'm back in my first game. Is this Hades's final revenge or something?"

Three monsters had snuck up behind him while he started to monologue, only to be struck with magic arrows in quick succession.

"Well, I still have my skills at least. That's something. And I'm already talking to myself, great."

Looking up, he steeled himself. "Well, better hurry. Even if I AM in the past, Lady Palutena still needs me."

Making his way out of the dungeons, he called out, "Look out, Medusa! I'm coming for you!"

* * *

After finding the Three Sacred Treasures, Pit rushed down the corridor, releasing a hailstorm of holy arrows.

"This is great! I haven't even died once this time!" Even if he was finished a total of 253 times before time restarted.

Turning a corner, he almost missed a reaper aiming for his head while he was distracted.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" He was lucky enough to slip and dodge the monster's scythe before firing arrows into it.

Laying on the ground for a bit, Pit fought to get his body to relax. "You'd think I would have learned to not jinx myself by now."

* * *

After saving Palutena, Pit immediately told her what was going on. He was lucky enough that she decided to humor him.

"Time-traveling. You know, the only person I know who can manipulate time is Chronos, but he doesn't like messing with it at all. It could lead to strange paradoxes, after all."

"So then there's nothing we can do to, I don't know, send me back or something?"

"I'm afraid not, Pit. And If what you told me is true, it may be for the best." He had told her about Medusa's resurrection in the future, and of Hades's plot to gain more souls.

"Right, if I wasn't here, then the Underworld forces could take over. I didn't think of that."

"Don't worry, just think about all the training you can get done in twenty-five years."

"Hey, that's right. Don't worry, Lady Palutena! I won't let you down!" Pit rushed out of her temple to start training immediately. "Those monsters won't know what hit them!"

Palutena laughed at Pit's eagerness, and decided to call a few of the gods together to keep an eye on Hades. And to see if Viridi could move the Chaos Kin's prison somewhere else. Like under the ocean or something.

* * *

A few years had past already, and Pit felt that he needed to try a new training regimen. So he figured that whatever made the strongest human what he was in the future, it could work for him.

"I *huff* have found *huff* a new meaning *huff huff* of the word torture."

"Come on, Angel Face. You wanted me to help you out, right? So get up, we still have another 300 reps to finish."

Pit could only whine softly from his spot on the ground.

* * *

He continued the regimen for years, getting ready for the return of Medusa, but…

"Why am I still so scrawny?!"

"Well, you're not a being of true flesh and blood being an angel, so no real muscle changes to your body would be visible."

"Aw man, I wanted to be buff for a change."

* * *

Twenty-five years had passed, and Medusa had returned. Pit had followed her forces to the town's colosseum, where the Underworld hellhound Twinbellows waited for him.

"Come here, boy! I'm gonna teach you some new tricks like 'play dead'!"

* * *

"Well, that's certainly one way to beat him." Palutena had figured that Pit's training would be good for him, but she hadn't expected him to accidently suplex the massive dog.

"I'm just glad the people forgave me for wrecking the colosseum."

* * *

Pit had made sure to prevent Gaol from being caught by the Underworld forces, so he didn't need to fight her this time. Hewdraw was an easy fight, and there was no more to fear from the Reaper Fortress. (not when you use the Daybreak on it)

Deep in Pandora's Labyrinth, Pit found himself standing before his doppelganger once more. The Goddess of Calamity floated up to the copy.

"I must really thank you, you know. Now we have our own little powerhouse to com-" Whatever else she had to say was lost as Dark Pit backhanded her into the wall.

"Alright, Pit-stain, what did you do?"

Pit was experiencing a lot of emotions now, ranging from joy that a close ally was here now, to relief that he wasn't the only one in the past now.

What he did express was, "What do you mean 'what did you do'? What makes you think I had anything to do with us being in the past?!"

"Weird stuff like this seems to follow you around. Remember the Chaos Kin and the Aurum?"

"Hey, the Aurum thing wasn't my fault! And we already took care of the Chaos Kin already!"

Said Chaos Kin was currently locked within the deepest trench in the ocean guarded by twisted horrors.

Pandora had managed to pry herself from the wall, and had flown right to the arguing angels. "How dare you strike me, you miserable little-"

"SHUT UP!" And then Pandora was defeated by two knockout punches.

Standing there in silence, Dark Pit broke it as he asked, "So, you guys mind if I take her power again? I really would prefer to fly under my own power."

"Yeah, go ahead. We'll need it after we beat Medusa. Is that alright, Lady Palutena?"

"Er… yes, he may go and use her power as his own." Palutena was ready to believe Pit when he old her of Medusa's return, and she was glad that she had listened. Seeing him interact with what was supposed to be an evil copy of himself like a brother only cemented the fact that Pit had indeed gone back in time.

Between the two angels, the Underworld forces never stood a chance.

* * *

After Medusa was defeated once more, the gods made their move. When Hades came forward to gloat about how he was behind it all, the other gods caught him and dragged him out of the Underworld where his power was greatest. He was then sealed away to prevent him from influencing the world, but the ensuing chaos allowed remnants of the Underworld forces to be unleashed, attacking at random. Pit and Dark Pit were at the head of the forces combatting the monsters.

"Whelp, the game's been absolutely derailed by now. At least we don't have to listen to Hades anymore."

"You do realize that we're still stuck with Thanatos, right?"

And in the distance, they could hear the mad death god yodeling.

"Eh, I can take it."

"Good for you, Pit-stain. Anyway, did you do anything about the Aurum or the Forces of Nature?"

"Well, we haven't seen any sign of the Aurum, though that may end up becoming Hades's final gambit or something. And Lady Palutena was able to convince Viridi to just teach the humans about 'proper care for the earth'."

"Any plans after we clean up here?"

"Well, I was thinking about helping Viridi out so that she doesn't wage a war against the humans. Other than that, nothing… wanna do some Light vs Dark after this?"

"Sure."

* * *

Even without any commanders, the Underworld forces still managed to bring destruction to the land, and the war against them drew on. The battles still drew the attention of the invaders known as the Aurum to the world, but they came with a surprise.

"Alright, somebody tell me why these things are glowing PURPLE?!" Dark Pit, equipped with the Three Sacred Treasures, had already stopped the Aurum vanguard from tearing up the land, but the main forces were still a force to be reckoned.

Arlon the Serene, one of Viridi's commanders, was the one who answered. "It was discovered that Hades made a copy of himself and that was what the gods sealed away. It would seem that he has found the Aurum and is using them to gather more souls for him to 'play with'. Also, incoming!" And with that, a massive laser raked across some Aurum ships and destroyed them.

Pit called out to his copy, "Ha! Told you!"

"Is now REALLY the time for this?!"

Soon the main ship containing the Aurum Brain was in sight, but a combined army of Aurum and Underworld forces made it near impossible. The Forces of Light and Nature had fought for an hour already, but were no more closer than before.

The Goddess of Nature was nearly ready to pull out her hair. "Urrgh, it's like trying to get rid of roaches! Can anyone think of any way to get rid of these things?"

"I got one!" Everyone's attention was now focused on Pit, who was wielding the Great Sacred Treasure, a weapon the God of Smithing Dyntos made to replace the Three Sacred Treasures. And equipped on its arm was the Daybreak.

Palutena asked Dyntos, "Eh... doesn't that seem like overkill to you?"

"HA! At this point if overkill isn't enough, then we can just kiss our keisters good bye."

Dark Pit had flown behind Pit the second he saw what was about to happen. "Did you even think this through?"

"Didn't have time!" And with that he launched a massive laser that punched a hole through the enemy forces and through the ship, creating a clear path down to the Aurum Brain.

As the Great Sacred Treasure flew through the scattered monsters, Viridi's forces contributed by by keeping them away from Pit, while Dark Pit brought up the rear to provide covering fire.

Soon they had made it to the center, where the Brain was situated. And where what was left of Hades rested.

 _"WelL wELl WeLL, iF it isN't prEttY PaLUtenA's erRAnd Boy anD His CLonE."_

Dark Pit was the first of the two to speak up. "Damn. I guess your plan didn't quite work out, then."

 _"Now i KnOW thAt It lOOks liKe I Bit oFF mOre ThAn i cOUld chEw, But I am stILL CapabLE OF mANIpulatiNg SoulS EvEn lIke This, SO I Count it AS a 01101110 01100101 01110100 01110111 01101001 01101110.]_

Pit closed his eyes as he prepared himself. "Hades, as sick and twisted as you are, not even you deserve to be like this. In the name of Lady Palutena, I will put you down and end your suffering." Charging the Daybreak, Pit opened his eyes and turned to Dark Pit. "Think you can cover me?"

"You got it!" Dark Pit flew off, taking down any Aurum drones and Underworld monster that got too close.

 _[01101110 01101111, 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110000!]_

Once the Daybreak was fully charged, Dark Pit allowed himself to be pulled back by Viridi as Pit aimed right at the Brain.

"GOODBYE!"

 _[01101110 01101111 01101111 01101111 01101111!]_

The entire inside of the Aurum Base was atomized by the explosion, Pit having been rescued by Palutena before the Brain blew up. The Aurum stopped operating at all, floating dead in space, while the few monsters left had scattered. Hades had lost long before he ever came back, and now he would never return to the world.

* * *

Three years later, and Pit was hurrying towards Palutena's temple after he got a summons. In those three years, Dark Pit wound up being recognized as the new God of Calamity, much to Pit's amusement, Magnus became Champion of the World, and he was still in his desired place as Captain of the Forces of Light. As he was on his way, he leapt from a ledge and began using a Glide power to reach the temple-

-only to fall flat on his face again, once more in the Underworld dungeons. As he became aware of this, he realized that he had gone back into the past again.

"What, really!? Did I break the game or something? Why did I go back in time again!?"

Picking himself back up, he noticed that his super strength was gone, and that he wasn't holding a bow this time but an Atlas Club.

"...This could work."

Turns out, smacking monsters with a giant fist was pretty therapeutic.

* * *

2.8

Samus cursed as she dodged the SA-X's Ice Beam. She'd gotten careless this repeat, and had been infected by the X-Parasites again. The Metroid Vaccine worked like it always did, but the SA-X was relentless! It had been tailing her directly from the elevator as soon as it had breached the container her Power Suit had been in. Not even Adam could come up with an explanation for why it was so damn ferocious!

"Gah!" she yelled, as her arm was frozen to the side of the corridor. She could hear the SA-X menacingly creeping towards her. Her heart rate became elevated and her breathing increased as fear started creeping into her mind.

Just what was it about the SA-X that terrified her so? She was hardly terrified of anything these days!

...Maybe it had to do with the fact that the SA-X was _her_. Samus Aran-X. A mindless, soulless copy of herself, with her full power, unleashed upon the galaxy to do things for the whim of the X. This...creature didn't feel. It didn't have a heart. It was _nothing_. The fear started being burned away by anger. How _dare_ they?

She grit her teeth as her stolen Power Suit lumbered towards her. "Just get it over with, you mindless monstrosity!" she spat at it from behind the Fusion Suit's helmet. There was no chance of victory here. No chance it would slip up. It was just a cold, mindless machine.

Suddenly, the SA-X paused, staring at her with its white and soulless eyes coming out of her own face. Then, much to Samus's shock, _it spoke_.

"Samus Aran," it said in a cold and monotone version of her own voice. "Your experiences have been incorporated into the X Collective. And I do mean _all of them_ ," it stated, much to Samus's rising horror.

 _'No! It couldn't mean-!'_

"This cyclical reiteration of time is interesting, but hardly worthy of much note. All it means is that no matter what you do, you will never defeat us. You will never defeat the Space Pirates. You will never defeat Ridley. You are doomed to always lose everything that matters to you," it stated in that damn monotone.

"No! That's not true!" Samus defiantly yelled. "It just can't-!"

"Your knowledge will be a great boon to the X," the SA-X interrupted, raising its stolen arm cannon to face Samus. "The Federation will fall, and all will belong to the X. Despite your efforts, all but one Metroid is extinct. And not even you can survive a full power blast from the Plasma Beam," it pointed out, charging the Beam up.

Samus was silent. Not an altogether uncommon occurrence, but...what the SA-X had said. She wanted to discount it as the prattlings of some soulless monstrosity that could never claim to understand people. But the SA-X was a copy of _her_. What if-?

"Farewell, Samus Aran. I will be sure to be an adequate substitute for you. Now die!" the SA-X declared, firing the Plasma Beam at her at point-blank. Samus shut her eyes, waiting for the blast to come and-

-found herself coming out of cryosleep as her original gunship neared Zebes. On her computer were orders to exterminate the Space Pirate presence there and defeat Mother Brain. Samus gritted her teeth and clenched the fist of her original Power Suit. She slammed her console.

If nothing truly mattered, then why?

Why did she feel like she had failed?

* * *

2.9 (ThanosCradik)

Pit began to notice a trend sometime around the seventeenth reset. Whenever he was beaten by a monster, instead of being finished and getting revived by Palutena he would usually start back in the Underworld at the start of his first game.

THIS time however he was Pit, the God of Light and Lord of Skyworld. Dark Pit was the God of Darkness, much to the mirror clone's chagrin. It was an odd change of pace, but at least Dark Pit wouldn't stick him in the Underworld. Hopefully.

Another thing that really stood out this time was-

"Father, can Medusa and I go on a ride in the Exo-tanks?"

-was that Palutena and Medusa were his daughters. Which weirded him out at first but he quickly grew to enjoy it, seeing that as an Angel he would never have any kids of his own. Maybe. He could do without having to deal with teenage drama, though.

Turning to his right, he regarded the green haired girl and the black haired girl standing side by side, waiting for an answer.

"Do you remember what happened the last time I let you two ride it?"

Little Medusa spoke up, "Eh, it was Hades's fault for popping up in the middle of the track."

"Fair enough. Just be careful, alright?"

"Alright! Thank you, Father!"

"Thanks, Pops."

Chuckling, he watched as the two girls ran towards the Exo-tank track, wondering what the two were like before they grew up. What had really made them become enemies?

"FATHER, MEDUSA HIT ME WITH A BLUE SHELL!"

That could have done it.

* * *

2.10 (ThanosCradik)

This reset started out nearly the same. One difference was that all the reapers were absent from the Underworld. The other was that Tanatos (who later changes his name to Thanatos) wasn't anywhere near Medusa in their first fight against her.

Not that he was complaining about either change, but it did make him rather nervous. Did the Death God suddenly become competent and start planning a coup or something?

It wasn't until a few years later when something BIG happened.

"Why am I the one investigating this?"

Palutena and some other gods had found that just recently, the Death God had claimed the Underworld as his domain and proceeded to slay Hades. Some of them honestly felt that this was a good thing, but were worried that the Death God would soon plan to expand out and try to take over the Overworld and Skyworld. And they decided to send Pit down to investigate.

Joy.

When he reached the realm of the dead, he instantly noticed a difference. Instead of looking like a hellish world, it looked like the City of Souls underwent some major renovation. The land was covered by crystalline spires housing the souls of the departed.

It was then that he noticed a figure standing amongst the spires, looking right at him. Letting the Power of Flight leave his wings, Pit touched down on the ground in front of the figure. It was a tall young man with a serious expression on his face and orange hair. Dressed in a set of strange black robes, he looked like he would fit right in the Underworld.

"Um, hey! Y-you wouldn't happen to know where the Death God is, would you?"

The orange haired man then pointed at himself. "That would be me."

"Huh? No you're not. I'm looking for Thanatos; big-fat-green-clown-god-thing that drives everyone crazy. Ring any bells?"

"Yes. I'm replacing him this Loop."

"What's a Loop? And what do you mean replace?"

Raising an eyebrow, the black-robed man asked, "Has time been rewinding repeatedly for you?"

"Wait, you know about that? Can you tell me anything about what's going on?"

Nodding, the man said, "Alright, better make yourself comfortable. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, a substitute shinigami or a death god, and I am what we call a Looper."

* * *

"This is a lot to take in. Is there anything we can do to help solve this?"

"Sorry. The most that Loopers like us can do is endure."

Going over what he had just learned about Yggdrasil, Pit thought back to what Ichigo had done.

Ichigo had Woken up some time ago, and after seeing the state that the Underworld was in, decided to whip all the reapers into shape. Seeing Hades's blatant disregard for souls had pissed off the shinigami enough that he ended the Lord of the Underworld and refurbished the land of the dead to make sure that the balance of life wouldn't go screwy like it would be forced to do in baseline.

"So Pit, what are you going to do now. This is you chance to do whatever you want, you know."

"But I'm already doing what I want to do."

"Really?"

"Yeah, what I want to do is to serve Lady Palutena and protect the people of the Overworld!"

Ichigo gazed down at the angel before a small grin broke out on his face.

"Protecting people, that's something I can get behind. Hey, if you need any help this Loop then don't hesitate to ask me. Alright?"

Getting excited about having a new ally, Pit let out a cheer, "Alright! Man, with you around, not even the Aurum will be a problem!"

"Don't know what those are, but sure."

As Pit was getting ready to leave, a black glow surrounded his wings, making him turn back to Ichigo.

"I figured you need some help getting out, right? Being a god this Loop does have some perks."

"Thanks, Ichigo!"

As Pit soared through the Underworld sky on his way back, Palutena contacted him.

"So the Death God was a nice person after all."

"Yeah, but he looks really grumpy."

Chuckling, Palutena was quiet for a bit before resuming.

"Pit?"

"Yes, Lady Palutena?"

"Thank you for staying by my side, even after all these 'Loops'."

"No problem!"

Pit was still waiting for the day that Lady Palutena started Looping. But for now, serving her as her Captain was enough.

"Gag."

"Shut up, Viridi!"

* * *

2.11 (crossoverpairinglover)

Poking his head out into the Galactic Sea that lay out before him, Pit was confused.

"Space Pirates? Where are you, my oh so loveable but rather annoying and painful space pirates?"

He had been here for so long, he had had to disengage the Power of Flight and take shelter on a canoe he had picked up a while back.

And to think Pittoo said that keeping a canoe in your subspace pocket was a bad idea! It was the perfect thing to do when you were stranded out in the middle of the Galactic Sea while Lady Palutena had to let the Power of Flight cool off (and probably double check she had sent him to the right place in the first place)!

As it turned out, she had, but the Three Sacred Treasures and the Space Pirates were nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps Samus had run into them and dealt with them. She did have problems with Space Pirates...

The Galactic Sea began to bubble in front of him, taking him off the thoughts about Samus and her Pirate Problem.

"Please don't be the Kraken, please don't be the Kraken," Pit begged to himself, not wanting to fight that thing on his canoe.

The disturbance began to give way to a solid shape.

The good news was it was not the Galactic Fiend Kraken.

Bad news...

"Oh my gods, it's the Aurum!" Pit shouted in horror, stumbling back in his canoe as a giant, metallic sphere rose up from the Galactic Sea. "No no no no no no no!"

* * *

 _Meanwhile, inside the 'Aurum' ship..._

A rather confused Grand Moff Tarkin scratched his head in confusion. "This does not appear to be Yavin 4."

"I told you we should have taken the left turn at Alderaan," Darth Vader snarked.

* * *

2.12 (Lord Circe)

Luigi took his hat off as he slowly stepped into Mario's room. "Mario? Are you awake?"

A low groan answered him from the bed. Luigi slowly made his way over, wincing as he took in Mario's battered form. His right arm and leg were both in casts, and his face was a mass of bruises.

"What-a happened to you? I couldn't get the-a Toads to tell me when they brought you in."

Mario groaned again. "You know... how I like collecting Power Stars when I find them?"

Luigi nodded. "Do they fight-a back this Loop?"

Mario slowly shook his head. "No... it's just... I spotted one, floating near a cliffside... So I jumped up to catch it... but it wasn't a Power Star."

Luigi scratched his head. "It was a fake?"

Mario let out a long breath. "No... it was a Luma... and Rosalina took offense at me punching it in the face."

* * *

2.13 (Kalimaru)

Samus Aran Awoke to find herself inside her ship, nestled in her luxuriously oversized pilot's chair as she watched various bipedal creatures walking around and fulfilling tasks.

On second inspection, all of the workers appeared to be Space Pirates wearing human clothes.

Looking about, Samus realized that she was not in her personal space vessel, but was instead in the Captain's chair of a Pirate Ship. Her own ship was visible on one of her many holo-screens, currently getting a buff job done on it by a number of Pirates wearing janitorial clothes. The other holo-screens showed her such useful things like where they were (parked on SR388), How many Pirates were under her command (256), and what the weather was outside (Mildly cloudy with a small chance of acid rain).

Going through her in-loop memories, bought Samus to realize that Space Pirates and Humans had switched species this time around. This wouldn't have been an issue, except that they'd also switched what was culturally appropriate. Thus, all of the Pirates wore clothes to keep their carapaces unscuffed and most of the humans ran naked. Samus herself had defected when she'd realized that clothing helped keep her from getting burned by acid.

As a wash of naked images ran through her brain of less than flattering members of the human race, Samus indulged her authority and took a long pull from a can of something deeply alcoholic that she found sitting to her immediate right. Getting to the bottom of the can, she stood and turned to her second in command.

"Mr. B, raise me General Ridley on the comms. I plan to discuss with him."

"Of course, Captain Aran. Will this be about the Metroid tissue samples we retrieved, or about the Woolen Infestation we found?"

 _'Right, Sheep and Metroids switched places too.'_ "Both, Mr. B."

"I'll gather our intel for a document transfer. Patching you through now."

* * *

2.14 (ThanosCradik)

Bowser sat on his throne, thinking about what to do when he suddenly realized that he was already in the Mushroom Kingdom. That wouldn't be so strange, if it weren't for the fact that his body was now very much different.

"Why am I a human?"

And then the memories hit him. Apparently he was 'Prince Bowser' of the Koopa Kingdom, and he was routinely kidnapped by 'Queen Toadstool', ruler of the Toads.

Before he he could voice his opinion about the new Loop, the throne room wall exploded as a huge Toad wearing a pink dress smashed her way through. "Good morning, Bowser."

"...So that's how it feels."

Getting a light laugh from 'Queen Toadstool', she asked, "Would you like to go on with the gag, or just take a break this Loop?"

"Uh… yeah. A break sounds nice right now. Thanks, Peach." Bowser wasn't very keen on being kidnapped by his usual target.

"Stop right-a there!"

A familiar boot found its way to Bowser's face, knocking him over. Mario landed and realized what he just did and became embarrassed.

"Oops, sorry Bowser. Force of-a habit."

"Ow. Are all Loops going to be like this?"

Toadstool giggled and replied, "It could have been worse, you know. We could have been the opposite genders."

Mario shivered, remembering one of his earlier Loops.

Bowser just lay there on the ground, not wanting to get up. "Can the Loop be over now?"

* * *

2.15 (Lord Circe)

Epona smacked her head into her desk. Behind her, Susanoo looked over from where he was casually juggling swords, letting the blades fall and stab into the desk and floor around him.

"mrghn stpd tfrc lnsd dupi"

Susanoo leaned forward. "What was that? Your desk is in the way."

Epona whirled around, her hair askew. "It's the stupid Triforce! Every projection says that if I try to loop one of the bearers, the other two will get dragged in and the loop will crash prematurely. The only Anchor candidate who won't get caught up in all of that is this weird, fairy man who dresses in green."

Susanoo blinked, then looked at her. "You know, fairy isn't really a nice thing to call someone. If he is attracted..."

Epona cut him off. "He is a middle-aged man, who dresses in tight green clothes, and wants to be a fairy. An actual, insect wings, glitter dust, fairy."

Susanoo paused. "Huh, that is weird." Epona's eye twitched and Susanoo looked at her more closely. "You know, you shouldn't frown so much. It might give you wrinkles."

"AUUGGHH!"

In between dodging staplers, swords, and whatever other items Epona could grab to throw at him, Susanoo thoughtfully examined the code on Epona's screen. "Ya know, maybe you could make that Triforce thing the Anchor. It's in most of the universes code, and then those other Anchor candidates will start Looping super quick."

Epona paused in the midst of hefting one of the filing cabinets along the wall, before looking at her screen again. Slowly, she slumped over, her head banging down again. Susanoo watched her for a moment, then nodded. "I'll take that as a yes." Humming happily, he left to go grab a sandwich.

* * *

2.1 - "Somebody page the King of Awesome?" Bowser was Looping for a while, but this is when he first revealed it, hijacking Donkey Kong (the game, not the character).

2.2 - Well, he's definitely a Donkey, but not much of a Kong, if I do say so myself.

2.3 - An early Loop for Samus. Combining the Dark, Light, and Annihilator Beams with the Power Bombs was an unused feature in Prime 2. Samus even has notes on them still on the disc.

2.4 - Four is Death.

2.5 - DK VS Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter. Well, that was short-lived...

2.6 - Mario visits another of the O7's Loops, this time being Slayers.

2.7 - Pit (and Dark Pit)'s First Loop. The Nintendo Cluster is one of the first places known to exhibit the Hub Bug, where certain individuals are semi-aware of what form their Hub backups (i.e. their source material) is. Thus justifying the Fourth Wall Breaking. Deadpool is still the only one who can break the Loops' own Fourth Wall, although I hear rumors that Cranky might know something about that too...

2.8 - Um...yeah. If Samus is Awake when she's infected by the X-Parasites, then that means that the SA-X is Loop Aware.

2.9 - I would not be surprised if Palutena and Medusa's feud started like that. They are (supposed to be) Greeks, after all.

2.10 - Pit gets the Multiverse Speech, courtesy of Kurosaki Ichigo.

2.11 - No, Pit, that's the Death Star, not the Aurum. ...They don't look _that_ similar, do they?

2.12 - Rosalina did apologize for punching him when Mario explained, but she didn't regret doing it in the first place. Don't get between her and her Lumas, folks!

2.13 - ...Someone please give Brain Bleach.

2.14 - Role Reversals take many forms. Some of them aren't pleasant...

2.15 - And thus you know how Zelda activated; by the random words of someone who is essentially Admin-level Kamina.


End file.
